And what about the flowchart in the entrance to the downtown bookstore and coffee shop?

The chalkboards -- where passers-by can use colored chalk to write out their fears and curiosities -- and the flowchart for compiling the writings are the starting point for creating a phone app.

This app, which is in the visioning stage, will connect people in the community according to their interests and desires for learning and doing.

"It's going to allow people to understand what the app would do," said Monika Hardy, facilitator of the be lab, an unschooled community supported by Thompson School District. "It's living out what the technology does first."

The be lab, previously called the Innovation Lab, is calling Anthology its home base, a move supported by the store's owner, Stephanie Stauder. The students and volunteers had met in donated space called the be you house until last month, when the residential home became unavailable.

One of the premises of the be lab is "city as school," where students extend their learning environment to the buildings and offerings of an entire city.

"The idea behind Anthology is so much bigger than a bookstore," Stauder said. "We've been able to successfully put things in place to facilitate conversations and connections. Anthology's role is (to serve) as a place to accommodate and facilitate people coming together and sharing ideas."

Anthology has become a "space of permission for kids to be, learn and share," Hardy said.

Hardy and Stauder realized they have the same goals for the be lab and for the bookstore -- to set people free to allow them to live out their passions.

To further this mission, the be lab and Anthology collaborated with homegrOWNzipcodes, a for-profit, for-good business model focused on connecting community members. The model, started by Stauder and Heather Goldstein, eventually will serve as a model for other communities.

"My passion is helping people work in their passions, especially students, so they live their authentic lives," said Goldstein, conscious leader trainer who volunteers with the be lab.

HomegrOWNzipcodes connects like-minded people in a supportive relationship, encouraging authenticity to their passions. Within this type of learning network, those connected can listen to one another, provide mentoring, come up with new ideas and co-create.

The blackboards serve as a model of the app, which will match people with learning partners based on the content of their daily reflections in the app. The app users would verbally input their thoughts and curiosities on a daily basis, which would then be compiled into data, or nodes. Those with similar data are then connected.

In the meantime, people are being connected through the handwritten flowchart inside Anthology's entrance.

"What happened when you set a person free in a space with nothing to prove?" Hardy said.